By: Cole Buergi, Leonard & Finco Public Relations
Depending upon what side of the isle you lean, you were
either exuberant very late last night (er, um, early this morning) or extremely
disappointed. Setting the outcome aside, one lessen I think became quite clear
is how social media has changed the way politics is perceived and how it is
minimizing the impact traditional media plays in our election process.
Thinking back to the presidential elections I’ve witnessed
(sadly, a lot which shows my age) prior to social media, most citizens got
their news from just a select few national media outlets. In the early 80s, there
were three national television networks (ABC, NBC and CBS) and a few national
papers. In the 90s, that number grew with the addition of a few more national
media, but citizens had little option but to look to these outlets to get their
information to formulate their decisions.
In addition, with limited ways to get their message out,
candidates had to seek out these reporters and position their messaging to
generate coverage that would be positive for them. This gave reporters a
significant amount of influence. It also meant people placed a high degree of
trust in what was being reported and who was doing the reporting. Hence, you
had such news stalwarts as Walter Cronkite, Dan Rather and Tom Brokaw who were
trusted in providing their audience with accurate information.
Fast forward to 2016 and I believe that influence has waned
significantly as candidates can now circumvent the media through social media
platforms and speak directly to their audience, without the filter or fact
checking of the media. It also allows the public to go to a variety of sources
to find information instead of relying on a “small” group of traditional media
for information.
Perhaps to some detriment, the public can also choose to
review information from sites that present information from only their
political view and don’t accurately portray the other side, leaving little, if
no, opportunity to get a full perspective of the candidates.
Whatever your political view, I think this election
highlights that social media has definitely changed the landscape of politics
and how future campaigns will be managed.
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